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Gertrude Berg

“… (in 1959 Gertrude) Berg went into partnership with the Wentworth Company to produce a line of bargain-basement housedresses. Advertised as ‘America’s best-loved large-sized housedresses… for the first time with a label that’s loved and trusted throughout America,’ the ‘Molly Goldberg Original,’ sold at Stern’s, Gimbels, and Abraham and Strauss in New York, increased sales for the Wentworth Company some 240 percent, ‘[Mrs. Berg] came here the other day to make an appearance in the department,’ a Stern’s executive revealed, ‘and we must have had a crowd of 600 here to see her…. Her name will sell anything.’

“Although Berg did not personally design the dresses, she met regularly with the designers to offer suggestions and to give the collection her ‘personal touch.’ That ‘personal touch’ also extended to press interviews, in which Berg… gave further proof that she could ‘sell anything’:

I can’t get too philosophical about a $3.99 dress, but I’ll tell you something, darling. They answer a very important need. They’re well made, comfortable, and the cut on them is wonderful. Why, I took the skirt of my Molly Goldberg housedress up to Hattie Carnegie to have them copy it for the rest of my wardrobe. It’s very slenderizing… everybody knows I’m no size 16….”